Lemons to lemonade

25082013

I bought a Sony Xperia tablet a few weeks ago, but as it’s so new, there aren’t many (any!) covers for it in Australian stores yet (and the Sony brand cover is really expensive). So I found something on Amazon, but Amazon wouldn’t send it to me as I live in Australia and they class these types of accessories as ‘electronic’ goods. What the…? Off to eBay where I found the same stuff from the same supplier as on Amazon and ordered it just fine. But based on my recent experiences with getting stuff from the US, I doubt the cover will be here by the time I go to Bali next month. What to do?

Make my own, of course! And even if I get the cover for the tablet in time for my Bali trip, I needed something that would hold the charger and cords too, so I really needed a protective padded clutch or sleeve of some sort. And what better way to use some gorgeous fabric I bought in Bali last September.

I measured twice and cut once, but my first effort was way too short! D’oh! What a waste of perfectly good fabric, though I thought I’d be able to make a standard clutch for my Etsy store out of it later. Fortunately, I had a couple of metres of this fabric so I started again, this time making it longer and slightly wider. I had a bit of left over fabric from the first attempt, so figured I’d make some pockets to go inside the clutch for the charger accessories. And then I had a brainwave! Why not use the first failed attempt as an inner pocket (giving me two BIG pockets and providing even more padding)? When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!

I sewed the little pockets onto the failed attempt, then sewed the whole piece inside the new main piece, then added some Velcro closures to those large pockets to prevent anything falling out when the clutch is open, and sewed the whole thing together. Finally I added a cute matching button and piece of ribbon for the main closure (I didn’t want Velcro here because if I’m on a long flight to the US, I don’t want to disturb others ripping open a Velcro closure — I’m considerate like that ;-))

Every seam in this clutch is completely enclosed (even the little pockets are fully enclosed!) and I used a fusible Pellon batting, so the clutch shouldn’t generate any dust that might get into the tablet. And I made sure the tablet would be well-covered by the double layer of padding — it only just pokes its head out. I now have a clutch that can fit my tablet, two small (about 4×4 inch) pockets, and two large pockets for the accessories, boarding pass, pen, passport, credit card, banknotes, etc.

I was quite pleased with the outcome! (The photos aren’t as good as I hoped — it’s hard holding a pocket open while trying to take a photo one-handed with your phone!)